Metaphors Are Important
by madidear578
Summary: Things get a little to hard for Rachel. She turns to two unlikely figure to help her though it.
1. Chapter 1

Rachel felt the cold blast of a slushie hitting her face, her eyes burned and she tried not to cry. She ran into the Nearest bathroom and cried in the first open stall. The constant torment was wearing on her. She really couldn't handle it anymore. There was only one class until lunch so she decided to sneak out to her car and leave, and maybe come back after lunch. She sat in her car crying for a bit, once she calmed down enough to drive she headed home. She showered and changed into a tee shirt with cats on it and a plaid skirt, the weather had been unseasonably warm and she had been too warm in her pony sweater anyway. She put her discarded sweater and skirt in the laundry.

She needed to eat lunch and didn't want to go back to school yet, so she decided upon her favorite vegan Chinese restaurant, it was in the mall and took a while to get to, but she needed to do something to cheer herself up.

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><p>She got in the car and put in her "Oklahoma" soundtrack and put "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" on repeat and sang along until she reached her destination. She grabbed her favorite faux general tso's chicken and sat at a table by herself feeling more alone then ever. She recognized a familiar face, who asked to come sit down. It was Shelby Corcoran. Rachel was confused but on instinct she said yes. Shelby sat down next to her.<p>

"Hi" Shelby said nervously.

"How are you?" Rachel replied just as nervously.

"I saw you and wanted to see if you still wanted to get dinner like you suggested, even though this is technically lunch"

"That would be nice, I don't really like eating alone."

"How is school?"

"My grades are really good."

"No, I mean how is it for you?"

"Um, it unpleasant, you know typical teenage drama."

"Oh. How is Glee"

"We won our sectionals, and are working on putting a set list together for regional's."

"You seem pretty sad, are you sure everything is ok?"

"I'm doing alright I guess."

"So Rachel, why are you at a mall food court and not in school."

And all at once Rachel started talking about all the things she had no one to talk to about. She was afraid to tell her dad about her guy problems, and talking to grown men about high school drama seemed a bit silly. She didn't really have anyone close to her and her was this woman, who knew the trials of growing up talented and being underappreciated. Telling her that Mr. Shue wouldn't give her solos, that she didn't always feel very pretty, that Finn barely noticed she existed until he decided to use her, and that everyone bullied her seemed normal. She didn't over analyze it like her shrink, she didn't ignore her like her fellow glee clubbers, and she actually seemed to understand unlike her dads. Shelby just listened and was on her side for all of it. They talked about everything that had happened in the past and how Rachel felt about it. Rachel didn't want it to end.

"Maybe after we finish eating, we can do a little retail therapy, I can help you pick out some new outfits, maybe some without animals on them." Shelby laughed

"I was considering going back after lunch." Rachel said hesitantly.

"Rach, we've been talking for about an hour, after we ate by the time you got back to school you might make your last class. Just relax, you need some time away from those people anyway."

"You're right, also today is the day, I don't have any after school activities so I don't have to worry about anything till ballet at 8.

* * *

><p>The women spent hours in every store, talking, laughing, trying outlandish outfits and finding perfect outfits. They ended buying Rachel almost a whole new wardrobe.<p>

"Ballet starts in about an hour and I need to eat before it."

"Well I was planning on making pasta for dinner tonight if you're interested. I'm also a vegan so you don't have to worry about that."

"Ok, I'll follow you home."

* * *

><p>After dinner with Shelby and Beth, who had been with her nanny all day, Rachel sat on the couch with them and got to know Beth a bit better, well as well as you can get to know an infant. Shelby invited her to come over anytime she needed to talk or wanted to get to know her sister. Sadly Rachel had to get on her pink leotard and head to ballet.<p>

* * *

><p>The next day at school Rachel decided to wear on of her new outfits though she was tempted to put on her favorite owl sweater. She decided on her coral floral sun dress and a cream colored cardigan and her new nude pumps, they were definitely her favorite new shoes. She loosely curled her hair and put it half up. She did her make up the way her mom showed her with light eyeliner, a neutral shadow and mascara, she then did a light peach gloss on her lips and applied a small amount of blush.<p>

When she arrived at school she felt pretty, she got nicer glances and no one insulted her. Her first class was uneventful. She was mostly ignored and took a lot of notes. She headed to her locker and on the way she saw Finn and Quinn holding hands. She caught Finn staring and she blushed and smiled at him. Quinn noticed this exchange. She glared at Finn, as a kid walked by with a slushie, Quinn grabbed it and tossed it at Rachel. It missed her face and got all over her new clothes. Everyone started laughing loudly at her, including Finn. She just fled. She ran to her car and drove to Shelby's house.

* * *

><p>Rachel walked in sticky, miserable, and in hysterical tears. Shelby looked concerned.<p>

"Why don't you go get in the shower, it will help." Rachel did as she was told and headed towards the bathroom. As she was in there she heard Shelby yelling at someone. She dried her hair and changed into her spare outfit. She wore a short black denim shirt and a pink tee shirt that had some silver designs on it, she fixed her hair the same way and reapplied her makeup but the eyes ended up a bit darker because she had been crying so much.

She exited the bathroom and Shelby handed her a mug of chamomile tea.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Yeah." All of Rachel's insecurities came pouring out.

"Sweet heart, you are beautiful, talented and kind, people envy that. You won't be slushied again."

"How do you know?"

"I told Figgins that if I found out it happened again your dads and I would be filing a lawsuit against the school district and he would be fired and possibly arrested for not reporting assault."

"Did you talk to my dads?"

"Yeah, they needed to know where you are, they are kind of hurt you didn't talk to them about this sooner."

"I didn't know how." Rachel started crying again, feeling terrible for hurting her dads.

"I know I explained that some things like boy problems and girl drama it's easier to talk to a woman about."

The women talked for a while about Shelby's struggles in high school, and compared them to Rachel's.

"I got made fun of often, I was just like you. I knew how talented I was and wasn't afraid to let people know. My parents weren't as supportive of the arts as yours are and I was ostracized at home and at school for loving music. My vocals were self taught, and I taught myself piano and guitar. I was pretty overweight though and had pretty bad acne. My mom let me take dance classes in middle school, she wanted me to be like her, a pretty, skinny cheerleader. She moved me to gymnastics the next year so I could a cheerleader like her. I wanted to please her, so I tried out for the squad and I got rejected. She was so mad. I tried out every year, I finally made it my senior year. I thought that she'd let me go to New York because that year she liked me. When she refused to support me I moved out and got a job waiting tables, until I saw your dads article. I left for New York right after you were born. I haven't really spoken to them since I moved out."

There was a knock at the door. Shelby got up and answered it. At the door was Jesse St. James

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><p>Authors Note: This occurs in season 2. Shelby is a bit OCC and Beth won't be mentioned much. Please let me know what you think, this is my first long story.<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

As Jesse stepped into the room he saw Rachel on the couch, his heart almost stopped, she was more beautiful than ever, even though she was clearly distressed. He wondered why she was he has here last time he checked they weren't speaking. He looked to Shelby who looked quite irritated that he had just shown up, there was some concern and confusion in her face too, it was always hard to read the softer emotions off his coaches face.

"What are you doing here?" Rachel asked looking hurt and confused.

"My parents kicked me out because I flunked out of UCLA."

"You flunked out!" Shelby screeched, knowing this may have been partly due to her extreme coaching measures.

"Can I stay for a bit" Jesse asked apprehensively

"Yes, but the conditions are you get a job, help with chores and Beth, you practice piano and vocals daily with me, and you try to move out or get into another college when you can."

Jesse was elated she hadn't said anything about staying away from Rachel.

"I agree to those terms."

"Rachel and I were about to get lunch, any preferences?" Shelby asked. Rachel gave Shelby an irritated look. She had been sitting there looking annoyed since he came in. He couldn't stop thinking about how beautiful she looked.

* * *

><p>Rachel was mad, very mad. She just got her mom back and now her ex is here and getting vocal lesson from her, babysitting her sister, and just being so smug and handsome. Rachel was not handling this well, for the first time she was looking forward to after glee therapy. She and her mom hadn't talked about Jesse yet, mainly because she didn't talk about it to anyone. She changed her relationship status on facebook after the egg incident and no one tried mentioning it to her after Santana brought it up once after Regional's last year to try to rub it in Rachel's face some more, Rachel threatened to quit glee, threatened to kill Santana, and then stormed out and didn't show up at glee for three weeks. So they all knew better than to bring it up. She wanted to talk about it with someone, but all of her fellow glee clubbers were to mean to her and she was afraid that if she spoke about her feeling they'd use them against her.<p>

Rachel realized she had just been sitting there stewing the whole time they were making lunch plans.

"Rach do you want Mexican food, Jesse's favorite restaurant is around here?" Shelby asked.

"Do they have Vegan options?"

"Yeah they have faux meat and soy cheese."

"Ok let's go."

* * *

><p>Jesse picked up Beth and helped her into the car seat, he opened the front doors for Rachel and Shelby then sat in the back next to Beth. He played peek a boo and cooed at her. Rachel turned on the cd player, feeling jealous of his closeness with Beth and Shelby's trust of him with her daughter, the Wicked sound track came blasting though the car stereo. Shelby switched it to Defying Gravity, the two of them sang together, which distracted Rachel and made her feel at ease in the uncomfortable situation. Next As Long As Your Mine came on, Rachel kept singing Elphba's part and Jesse took over for Fieryo, the intenseness of the emotions in the song started to overwhelm Rachel, hearing his perfect voice reminded her of everything she loved about him.<p>

She was terrified of falling for him again after spending so long dealing with the betrayal. She knew it was never real for him and he was just an amazing performer who played the role of the love of her life perfectly. He gave her everything she wanted out of a relationship, and then took it away with the crack of an egg. Her nightmares about chickens had stopped, but she had reoccurring ones about Jesse. She had accepted that it wasn't her fault that the chicks had died on her, after about 20 very expensive therapy sessions. Why did he have to come back? Her therapist had just moved out of their guest room?

They finally arrived at the restaurant and Rachel was subtly trying to do her deep breathing exercises to calm herself down after hearing Jesse sing that song to her. Well not to her, but with her.

* * *

><p>After they ate, Rachel told Shelby she had to go back to school then go to Glee. She drove back to school after picking up her car from Shelby's. She had missed her second and third class and lunch had just ended when she got back. She headed to French class and relaxed while reading a novel in French for her upcoming book report. It was a memoir of a French actress and she loved it, she got lost reading about the bright lights of the Parisian stage. The bell rang and Rachel was disappointed, she loved taking foreign languages, she took both French and Spanish, she had missed her Spanish class and would have to talk to Mr. Shue about it before Glee.<p>

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><p>Sorry it's so short, let me know what you think please.<p> 


	3. Chapter 3

When Rachel arrived at Glee, she felt worse than usual, she had gotten used to everyone being cold and unfriendly but today felt worse for some reason. Maybe it had been seeing Jesse, and her mother mostly ignoring her and talking to Jesse. For whatever reason Santana's cold sneer and Kurt's disapproving looks stung a bit more than usual. She started walking towards her normal seat, in the center of the room, but she wanted to shy away from attention and be ignored. So she sat in the back corner, she was starting to get tired of being constantly ostracized by her peers. Every day was beginning to feel like a pointless battle.

"Hey guys we need to start working on our regional's set list." Mr. Shue said as he entered the room.

The wheels in Rachel's head started turning almost immediately, she wanted to speak up and suggest a Patti LuPone themed melody but knew she be shut down and they'd end up doing Journey or Hall and Oats or something way beneath her. She just hoped Mr. Shue would stop making white guys rap, it was cheesy and inaccessible to the judges. Mercedes starting throwing out silly suggestions that only she could be the vocalist on, Kurt started suggesting he sing female leads on Broadway classics and Finn wanted to do Kiss again.

Rachel was getting so sick of everything, she pulled out her French novel and started reading. Mr. Shue started passing out the sheet music to You Give Love a Bad Name by Bon Jovi. He said it was an option for a guy only song. Finn and Puck took the lead, neither of them really sounded spectacular, but it was passable. He then wanted the girls to do Heartbreaker by Joan Jett, when she got her music she noticed it wasn't the lead, even though she was clearly the only one with the range to pull it off.

"Mr. Shue, I think you gave me the wrong part?"

"No Rachel leads are for people who participate."

"I usually participate but you shut me down anytime I suggest anything, we'll end up doing whatever everyone but me wants, so I no longer see the point in talking to you." With that she left, it wasn't her usual storm out, just an exhausted, defeated retreat.

* * *

><p>Rachel headed home, she snacked on an apple then put her ipod in its dock, blared her Katy Perry cd and got in the shower. She sang along until she felt better then got out dried her hair and put on her favorite pink sweats and a t shirt. She got to her car and headed to her therapists office.<p>

* * *

><p>She signed in to see Dr. Jones and read her novel until the receptionist came to walk her to the office.<p>

"Hi, Rachel. How are you today," She asked as Rachel sat down on the couch.

"Not so good. I'm feeling more alienated and alone than ever."

"Let's talk about that."

"Well I ran into my mom the other day, and we were doing really well, and I was talking to her about things and it was going really well, and then my ex appeared out of nowhere and is staying with her."

"Which ex?"

"Jesse."

"Does your Mother know how he broke up with you."

"I'm not sure, she knows he transferred back to her school and beat me at regional's and I think she might have known about the egging after the fact, I'm pretty sure she knew about the choir room, and the Queen song and may have helped plan that."

"Have you talked to her about it?"

"No, I'm afraid to find out that she knew about or even planned it."

"Do you think that's the case?"

"It seems unlikely, but VA is her life."

"Is anything else bothering you?"

"The glee club, Mr. Shue gave a solo to a less talented person just to spite me and everyone makes it clear that they don't really want me there?"

"Have you considered finding another creative outlet, one where people appreciate you"

"Yeah, but I'm invested in new Directions."

"Why?"

"I'm not really sure."

"I think your homework this week is to explore other possible creative outlets, maybe ones where the participants don't add to your stress level."

* * *

><p>The next day Rachel got ready for school, she put on her new skinny jeans, a light blue tank top, and brown ankle boots. She put her hair in a low ponytail and curled it, and wore a pretty long gold locket. She packed a different pair of jeans and a forest green halter top that had gold trim around the neckline, just incase. She grabbed her bag and drove to school. She was kind of afraid of what kids would do now that slushies were outlawed, especially since Figgins had let it happen for years, and was only trying to avoid a lawsuit from her mother.<p>

She walked to her locker apprehensively, as she opened the door, milk came rushing out of her locker. A note in the locker read "Slushies were the least of your problems." and there were several other things wrong, all of her pictures had been torn down, her note books were all destroyed, and the locker smelled of rotten milk. Rachel wondered what she had done to deserve this. When she turned around Santana was there smirking.

"You know thanks to your tattling Quinn's been suspended. She may even be kicked off the Cheerios. No ones going to help you now, Figgins knows he can't stop this, Sue is furious. He usually knows better than to suspend a Cheerio."

She stalked away leaving Rachel on the verge of tears, and damp with milk. She thought about ways to get revenge on Quinn and Santana.

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><p>Thanks for reading. Review. Also Vienna98, I haven't quite decided, I'll figure it out in the next chapter or two.<p> 


	4. Chapter 4

Rachel was conflicted, she didn't want to tell anyone and just have something worse in store for her. It seemed like everyone was against her. Mr. Shue clearly didn't give a fuck about her, he helped everyone else in glee with all of their problems, and then just ignored hers. He let them tease and mistreat her, and he was rude to her. Coach Sue clearly wanted her dead and Figgins isn't going to protect her. Rachel was just so sick of everyone ignoring her and mistreating her. This whole school is just so fucked up, and she wonders if other schools are just like it. She decides to go talk to Ms. Pilsbury.

"What do I have to do to transfer high schools?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"Because my therapist thinks it's a good idea to be away from me to be away from this abusive environment."

"Well, I'm not really sure Rachel, running away from your battles isn't really you."

"It's not a battle, if one side is outnumbered 200 to 1 and has been fighting for years with no end in sight if you won't help me I'll just ask my mom, she actually has some insight into my daily life and doesn't blindly judge my decisions." With that rant finished Rachel stormed out still damp with milk and went to leave for the day.

* * *

><p>On her way out Rachel ran into Figgins.<p>

"Where are you going?" He asked

"Your failure as an educator has become clear, I'm leaving. Try and punish me and see how my parents and their lawyers react."

With that she did another one of her perfectly executed signature storm outs and headed to her mothers. Fuck the consequences, I'm getting revenge she thought. What would crush Quinn and Santana? Losing? Maybe, but not in glee, maybe in cheerleading. If she got Sue fired that would happen. That could be tricky. Her lawyer was good, Gloria Albright wouldn't let anything happen to her. She knew making them lose in Glee would hurt them enough, if she waited till right before regional's to leave they would definitely lose, without her they wouldn't have the numbers and they would get cancelled. But that would help Sue. Rachel had never been good at getting Revenge. She needed advice from a pro.

* * *

><p>Rachel pulled into Shelby's driveway. She marched in the door looking defiant. Shelby and Jesse had been on the couch practicing their scales.<p>

"I need your help."

"With what?"

"I want to get revenge on McKinley."

"The whole school?"

"Yes, I know you too are experts at it with the egging and everything."

"What egging?" Shelby asked.

"Your team egged me last year right before regional's after they destroyed the choir room and sang Another One Bites The Dust."

"I knew nothing about that, one second." Shelby pulled Jesse into the kitchen and closed the door. Rachel heard shouting. Very loud shouting.

* * *

><p>"What is wrong with you, that is my daughter. You're lucky you don't have anywhere else to go or I'd kick you out of here so fast. What the fuck is wrong with you?<p>

We're both vegans and even if she wasn't do you think I'd let my team do that? If I knew about this when I was still coach, the ringleaders would have been cut and expelled, any letters of recommendation I had sent would be replaced, and the whole team would be punished with months of extra laps and those Range Rovers would be gone and that would just be the start. I made your lives miserable without even trying to be a bitch imagine what I could do with a little effort."

"I'm sorry, I had to prove myself to the team after transferring."

"No wonder you flunked out of UCLA, you're a pathetic little follower." Shelby said with more venom in her voice than Jesse had ever heard. "You had better to something to make this up to both of us. I'm so disappointed in you, I expected this from that little bitch Andrea but not you. You I trusted."

Jesse had never felt worse in his life.

* * *

><p>I had a bunch more written and then my computer decided it didn't want to be on any more, so I got frustrated.<p> 


	5. Chapter 5

Jesse was overwhelmed with guilt, he left to go on a run trying to think of a way to apologize to the two women he loved most, in very different ways. He started sprinting and in the unseasonably sweltering heat he started to feel a bit light headed after a half hour, he knew the signs of dehydration from his years of Vocal Adrenaline. He stopped into a nearby gas station and grabbed a blue zero calorie powerade, he checked out and chugged half of the cold beverage while sitting on the curb. He started walking back to Shelby's drenched in sweat and sipping at his drink. He hadn't realized how far away he'd gotten he'd gotten a few miles away, he couldn't bear to ask Shelby for a ride and all of his so called VA friends were at far away schools.

The endorphins from his run had worn off and his walk back was full of self loathing. He kept trying to think of things he could do, he considered letting them egg him but they were both vegans, and if he brought them a bunch of dead baby chickens they'd just be offended and probably disgusted. Maybe fake eggs would work, but that wasn't really their things, they would probably just think he didn't understand what he had done emotionally. Just apologizing might be good, but such a small gesture would be insignificant in compare to what he had put her though. Maybe diamonds? But then they would think he was trying to buy their forgiveness which wasn't for sale. Jesse was at a loss, maybe when he got back he would google great apology gestures.

That seemed to work, he found a site called perfect romantic apology on his I-phone, he decided he would do a combination of a bunch of the suggestions for Rachel one said to hide little apology notes everywhere, with heartfelt messages. They had also suggested an apology cd and videos, he decided to make it sort of a treasure hunt with notes, cds and video clips that would lead her to a huge surprise dinner that he made that somehow incorporated I'm sorry. Some of the suggestions were personalized fortune cookies, personalized pizza, or personalized cake. He decided on all, he also felt jewelry might be a bit too romantic but wanted to win her back after she forgave him. So something small that would show her he cared and felt bad. He would need Shelby's help to hide the notes in all the right places. But first he had to figure out how to apologize to Shelby. Maybe just telling her he was truly sorry and saying he couldn't truly ask for her forgiveness until he had fixed what he did to Rachel. Though flowers wouldn't hurt, he thought and remembered a small florist that was only a nit out of the way back to Shelby's. He grabbed daffodils which were one of her favorites and also the color of friendship.

* * *

><p>He walked though the door with the flowers.<p>

"It's a start St. James" Shelby laughed as she walked towards the kitchen to get a vase, "You always did have charm." Jesse followed her to the kitchen.

"You seem in a better mood,"

"Yeah, Rachel and I talked and were planning a way for her to transfer. We're not quite sure about it yet."

"How's that going?"

"She isn't sure, you know her weird sense of loyalty."

"Yeah, I never got why she hadn't transferred before, everyone there treated her like shit, even her glee club was deplorable. I was considering trying to get her to transfer to Carmel with me, but I didn't know how."

"She won't go there, and she would refuse to join VA, they egged her."

"Speaking of that I have a plan to try to make it up to her."

"It's a little late."

"Yeah, I should have done it months ago."

"So what's your plan?"

Jesse explained to her everything he'd thought of on the way over.

* * *

><p>Rachel got out of her car, and walked into her house. Her dads were there waiting for her, she had called them earlier and told them they needed a family meeting.<p>

"What is this about Rachel?'

"Well I'm considering transferring schools."

"Ok, what schools are you considering?"

"I'm not sure yet, I wanted to get your approval before I started meeting with schools"

"Have you done any research?"

"Yeah, I've looked up all the schools with an open attendance policy within a half hour drive and all the nearby private non-Christian schools."

"Ok, why aren't you considering any if you've done all this research?"

"Well I need to meet with the principle, find out their bulling policy, check out their show choir, their vegan lunch options if they don't have open lunch, and their parking policy if I'm going to be making longer drives."

"That's all very sensible, do you want us to come to the meetings too."

"Yes, if you can't make all of them, at least the private schools."

"How many contenders are there?"

"Right now 8."

"Are the meetings scheduled"

"No I needed to look at your and Daddy's open times"

"Do you think we could do it all in one day?"

"Yeah, if we schedule them right"

"Any chance any of those schools in Akron are near Green Cafe?"

"But you and Daddy hate that place because all they have is vegan food, but yeah we could plan a lunch break in Akron"

"So it's settled Dad and I will take next Thursday off and we'll go look at schools. Will we be checking out Carmel?"

"I haven't decided, their show choir is amazing and they are a top high school. But with Shelby and Jesse gone, the bullying might actually be worse there."

Good point, I doubt the could enforce a strict no bullying policy with those terrible kids."

"But if I can forgive VA and become their lead, I'd have no issue."

"Do you want that?"

"Only if I can convince Shelby to come back."

"We'd be more comfortable with her looking out for you."

"But I don't want them thinking I'm getting all the solos just because my mother is the coach."

"You're too talented for anyone to think that."

"Thanks Dad and Daddy."

"Is there anything else?"

"I think I want to have Shelby take over my vocal lessons."

"Ok. How much more will she be?"

"She's not going to charge me."

"Ok, that's great, we'll put that extra money into your college fund."

"Ok, thank you, is there anything you want to talk about?" Rachel replied.

"I think we should start having family dinners and movie nights on Wednesday?"

"Does it have to be set to a particular day, ?" Hiram asked his husband.

"No"

"Can we decide after dinner what time works best for everyone? Rachel's extracurricular schedule might be changing soon."

"That's agreeable. What do you think Rachel?" LeRoy replied

"I like it, can we make them themed?"

"Yes. We'll switch off who cooks and decides the theme."

"I call the first one being Barbara themed."

"Ok then you're cooking this week."

"Meeting adjourned." Hiram laughed

After talking to her dads Rachel felt much lighter and happier than she had in a while, she started on her her homework.

* * *

><p>Sorry this one took so long, but I'm not great at dialogue. Also I realized I was leaving out her dads. I know there hasn't been much interaction between them yet. Sorry. Also how did I do at Jesse's pov? And yes the site about perfect apologies is a real thing.<p> 


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